Think Atheist2016-12-10T01:41:52ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRivalhttp://api.ning.com:80/files/ewRWgoYLPkibUfXGbKQbmIrBs1NaE6SRexGXJMqRS13dA6efHo*F0Y-QOiFTj5WJU-fx8HVoIe3l7RJgS2v59ztdZR2UFKrU/MeShed5.jpg?width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.thinkatheist.com/group/qaar/forum/topic/listForContributor?user=26dmqs32cj6nn&feed=yes&xn_auth=noSomething to chew ontag:www.thinkatheist.com,2013-01-12:1982180:Topic:12465582013-01-12T19:50:55.578ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
<p>You are choking...so do I watch you turn blue and pray or jump up and perform the Heimlich Maneuver? I know, if I do the latter, God will get credit for my presence and action anyway. Oh, well.</p>
<p>You are choking...so do I watch you turn blue and pray or jump up and perform the Heimlich Maneuver? I know, if I do the latter, God will get credit for my presence and action anyway. Oh, well.</p> The Big Decisiontag:www.thinkatheist.com,2011-05-04:1982180:Topic:6462352011-05-04T01:50:19.700ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
<p>Fairly simple question and short answer from the faith-bound, please. When the ultimate physical life-and-death emergency suddenly strikes <strong>YOU</strong> in the deepest and most fearful core of your being, where would you honestly prefer to be taken by the ambulence or family: a hospital bed surrounded by a team of atheist doctors and nurses and possible life-saving technology or a comfortable church pew surrounded by a devout clergy and a host of invisible angels? Seriously, what…</p>
<p>Fairly simple question and short answer from the faith-bound, please. When the ultimate physical life-and-death emergency suddenly strikes <strong>YOU</strong> in the deepest and most fearful core of your being, where would you honestly prefer to be taken by the ambulence or family: a hospital bed surrounded by a team of atheist doctors and nurses and possible life-saving technology or a comfortable church pew surrounded by a devout clergy and a host of invisible angels? Seriously, what would you choose - faith in a miracle while undergoing medical procedures or faith in a miracle alone?<br/><br/><em>I think the choice is yours unless the clergy, like probably most, recommends the former which is usually the case. Hmmm . . . food for thought? Sorry, I forgot, you might choose the hospital so you could later give credit to God for working a miracle through the hands of all those infedel medical personnel. Oh, well - I tried. :-)</em></p>
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<p><em>Grandpa Dave, Free Thought Monk!<br/></em></p> If you used to be in ministry, how do you defend yourself as an atheist now?tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2011-04-11:1982180:Topic:6151312011-04-11T01:40:38.431ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
I used to be a minister, and am having to defend my lack of beliefs now. How do you find ways to defend yourself against condescending people?
I used to be a minister, and am having to defend my lack of beliefs now. How do you find ways to defend yourself against condescending people? this house believes that gay marriage is wrongtag:www.thinkatheist.com,2011-03-15:1982180:Topic:5839672011-03-15T04:39:32.773ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
<p>is there a good argument that is non-theistic or non-religious to prove or at least argue that same sex marriage is immoral?</p>
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<p>i cant think of any, and i dont want to use religious doctines, personally i am in favor of same-sex marriage but igot assigned in my debate class to oppose it.</p>
<p>is there a good argument that is non-theistic or non-religious to prove or at least argue that same sex marriage is immoral?</p>
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<p>i cant think of any, and i dont want to use religious doctines, personally i am in favor of same-sex marriage but igot assigned in my debate class to oppose it.</p> Lets establish your god before we start talking about books and churchestag:www.thinkatheist.com,2011-02-08:1982180:Topic:5199652011-02-08T18:38:39.781ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
I know of no objectively, repeatably demonstrable evidence to support the kinds of claims that people are making about their gods, such as he's loving, he's interested in your diet and sexual habits, he sees you when you're sleeping, is all-powerful but somehow needs money, and so on.<br></br><br></br>The sentence "God is all-powerful." assigns an attribute to a thing assumed to exist.<br></br><br></br>I will not grant the assumption that a god exists.<br></br><br></br>Let's work through your definition and supporting…
I know of no objectively, repeatably demonstrable evidence to support the kinds of claims that people are making about their gods, such as he's loving, he's interested in your diet and sexual habits, he sees you when you're sleeping, is all-powerful but somehow needs money, and so on.<br/><br/>The sentence "God is all-powerful." assigns an attribute to a thing assumed to exist.<br/><br/>I will not grant the assumption that a god exists.<br/><br/>Let's work through your definition and supporting evidence for the existence of the god you're talking about first. Then, if it turns out you can demonstrate its existence, we can discuss its attributes, sexual preferences and attitudes toward slavery, human sacrifice, and bacon. NASA proves the Bible to be true.tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2010-07-26:1982180:Topic:3215132010-07-26T18:19:37.792ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
<b>Was just wondering if anyone else have encountered this stupidity before?Excuse the copy and Pasting exercise.... </b><div><b><br></br></b></div>
<div><b>" What do you think about this;</b></div>
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<div><b>For all you scientists out there and for all the students who have had a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible - here's something that illustrates God's awesome creation and shows He is still in control.Did you know that NASA's space…</b></div>
<b>Was just wondering if anyone else have encountered this stupidity before?Excuse the copy and Pasting exercise.... </b><div><b><br/></b></div>
<div><b>" What do you think about this;</b></div>
<div><b><br/></b></div>
<div><b>For all you scientists out there and for all the students who have had a hard time convincing these people regarding the truth of the Bible - here's something that illustrates God's awesome creation and shows He is still in control.Did you know that NASA's space programmes are busy proving that what has been called 'myth' in the bible is true? Mr. Harold Hill, President of the Curtis engine Company in Baltimore , and a consultant in the spaceprogrammes, relates the following incident:"One of the most amazing things that God has for us today happened recently to our astronauts and space scientists at Green Belt, Maryland . They were checking out the positions of the sun, moon and planets out in space where they would be 100, and 1000 years from now. We have to knowthis as we do not want a satellite to collide with any of these in its orbits.We have to lay out the orbits in terms of the life of the satellite and where the planets will be so the whole project will not bog down.Computer measurements and data were run back and forth over the centuries when suddenly it came to a halt, displaying a red signal, which meant that either there was something wrong with the informationfed into it, or with the results as compared to the standards. They called in the service department to check it out, and the technicians asked what was wrong.The scientists had discovered that somewhere in space in elapsed time a day was missing.. Nobody seemed able to come up with a solution to the problem.Finally one of the team, a Christian, said: "You know, when I was still in Sunday school, they spoke about the sun standing still."While his colleagues didn't believe him, they did not have an answer either, so they said: "Show us."He got a Bible and opened it at the book of Joshua where they found a pretty ridiculous statement for any one with 'common sense'. There they read about the Lord saying to Joshua: "Fear them not, I have delivered them into thy hand; there shall not be a man of them stand before thee." (Joshua 10:8).Joshua was concerned because the enemy had surrounded him, and if darkness fell, they would overpower him. So Joshua asked the Lord to make the sun stand still! That's right - "And the sun stood still and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Ja'-sher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and hastened not to go down about a whole day." (Joshua 10:13).The astronauts and scientists said: "There is the missing day!"They checked the computers going back into the time it was written and found it, but it was not close enough. The elapsed time that was missing back in Joshua's day was 23 hours and 20 minutes - not a whole day. They read the Bible again and there it was: "about (approximately) a day." These little words in the Bible were important, but they were still in trouble, because another 40 minutes were still unaccounted for, and this could mean trouble 1000 years from now. Forty minutes had to be foundbecause it can be multiplied many times over in orbits. As the Christian employee thought about it, he remembered somewhere in the Bible which said the sun went backwards. The scientists told him he was out of his mind, but once again they opened the Book and read these words in 2 Kings. Hezekiah, on his deathbed, was visited by the prophet, Isaiah, who told him he was not going to die. Hezekiah asked for some sign as proof. Isaiah said: "Shall the sun go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?"And Hezekiah answered: "It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; nay, but let the shadow return backwards ten degrees." And Isaiah the prophet cried unto the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." (2 Kings 20:9 -11).Ten degrees is exactly 40 minutes! Twenty-three hours and twenty minutes in Joshua, plus 40 minutes in 2 Kings accounted for the missing day in the universe! Isn't this amazing? Our God is rubbing their noses in His Truth!PRAISE GOD!!!!"</b></div> An Ontological Argument for the Denial of Godtag:www.thinkatheist.com,2010-06-29:1982180:Topic:3049852010-06-29T08:03:27.023ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">If we take the hard scrub-brush</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">of deductive reasoning, to that mental house of cards first cemented by St Anselm’s ontological argument as proof for the existence of god, we can actually learn considerably more than one might suspect,…</span></span></span></p>
<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">If we take the hard scrub-brush</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">of deductive reasoning, to that mental house of cards first cemented by St Anselm’s ontological argument as proof for the existence of god, we can actually learn considerably more than one might suspect, from what we have left.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">As Thomas Aquinas argued,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">the mere fact that the mind of man is able to conceive of the idea of god, is certainly no proof of god’s existence. After all, the same mind of man that is capable of pondering the question of what could possibly lie beyond the edge of space, is just as capable of seeing the image of Mary in a cow chip, or imagining monsters under the bed. All that it means is that we have a wide imagination.</span></span></font></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">And all the other claims</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">that are automatically attributed to this imagined embodiment of perfection, can likewise be dismissed:</span></span></span></p>
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<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE">Omniscient? Omnipotent, All loving? That would depend, of course, on whether you’re drawing your conclusions from some of the hard lessons of nature, or merely indulging an overarching hubris, in supposing ourselves to be the central focus of some anthropic super power’s attentions.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">But, for the sake of addressing the issue,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">I’d like to propose a modest line of questioning, and look to determine what possible reason one might be able to give, for postulating the existence of an intentionally ‘hidden,’ or absentee god.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">After all, any god capable of creating</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">an entire universe, containing billions of galaxies and stars within those galaxies, who first breathed life into man, — who has, parenthetically, and apparently on his own, made any number of brilliant discoveries, and developed massive amounts of intrinsically subtle technology – and yet is either unwilling or unable to directly make his own existence known, or communicate his own wishes to us, is clearly either not there, dead, or in hiding.</span></span></span></p>
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<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><strong><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE">We’re not going to go with dead and being channeled through Pat Robertson, or any of his ilk.</span></strong></span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">But of the three,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">lets see if we can’t use our inductive reasoning, to brainstorm and come up with <em>any possible rational reason</em> for the existence of this proposed absentee landlord of the cosmos.</span></span></font></span></p>
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<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE">It’s been suggested, at least by myself if not some others, that possibly we’re being punished. That we’ve been exiled to this worldly prison, where we’ve all been given life sentences beyond any direct knowledge of god.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">Some consideration can certainly be paid</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">to the possible impact any direct knowledge of a deity might have on our world view — much as might be presumed to occur if we had direct knowledge of any other extra-terrestrial life.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">Could people continue living normal lives,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">and not spend them in constant supplication and petition, if they knew that the lord of all things could simply solve all their problems, and grant any their wishes, if it were only his will?</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><font size="2"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">Could god even still <em>be</em> god,</font></span></span></span></span></span></font></span></span></span></font> if he was directly knowable? Or would he quickly become relegated to the position of president and CEO of some ‘heavenly government’ in our minds. That once seen and directly known, could be grumbled at by individuals unhappy with their own particular lot in life?</span></span></span></p>
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<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><strong>That I once held these arguments in high regard</strong>, as a hedge against our ability to completely discount even the remotest possibility of a deity’s existence, I confess.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">But lets return to these same proposed possibilities,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">and see how they hold up under the deductive logic of simple human reason.</span></span></font></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">There is a certain appeal,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">that again – I once regarded favorably, in holding that any direct knowledge of the existence of god would simply negate any meaning to our ability to struggle, and suffer, and learn. Because, I believe there <em>is</em> intrinsic value to the learning achieved through overcoming the difficulties, and meeting the demands of this life. But our suffering — indeed all suffering — could quickly be seen as pointless, if it were to merely hinge on one’s ability to petition, or otherwise game god for relief.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">Where this argument really loses ground,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">though, is when we look around and consider that there are many people who already operate on the presumption that god has a direct hand in their lives. Who go about thinking god is looking directly over their shoulder at everything they do. Who spend inordinate amounts of time in supplication to their particular deities, and are unabashedly unashamed in claiming gods love and concern for themselves, while often excluding or simply remaining indifferent to the fate of vast majorities of the human race.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">And additionally,</span></span></span></font> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">we’re now faced with the problem of having to parse between legions of religious leaders and authorities, who are equally unashamed in unabashedly claiming to know and understand the mind of god, while also claiming all necessary authority for the right to speak in his behalf.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">English scientist Julian Huxley (1887-1975)</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">famously observed that:</span></span></span></p>
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: x-large"><em><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><font size="5">“Operationally, God is beginning to resemble not a ruler but the last fading smile of a cosmic Cheshire Cat.”</font></span></em></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">So we have to ask ourselves,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">what good could it possibly do for any ‘real god’ to remain hidden, when there are so many imposters ready to stand up and represent themselves as emissaries in his stead?</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">Because unless this <em>real</em> god</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">was to have some means of preventing the gross misuse and misappropriation of his own intended role, we can grant no advantage to any idea that he is simply keeping himself hidden for our benefit.</span></span></font></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><font size="4"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large">And in fact,</span> <span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><em>it is this inability to defend himself</em></span></font></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">or his own good name, against such egregious misuse and abuse, that provides the final logical evidence for establishing this proof — that no ‘real god’ exists, outside of the hearts and minds of those who may desperately want him to exist, for any number of good reasons.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">And, as it was for me,</font></span></span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small">this can’t help but be one of the deciding issues for those many as yet undecided deists, caring to weigh this out.</span></span></span></p>
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<p style="PADDING-LEFT: 30px"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="COLOR: #16BEFE"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana, sans-serif"><span style="FONT-SIZE: small"><span style="FONT-SIZE: large"><font size="4">And Out of a sense of self respect,</font></span></span></span></span> for having ever given this idea safe haven in the deepest recesses of the mind, one needs to quietly lay this myth to rest.</span></span></span></p>
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<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><img alt="" src="http://api.ning.com/files/LqBQOCZRh9mpAEMz3SUhLm2s-8yKiA-05wK0r5ZZFrYHwDjY5kbGo8pmR3wfTRA3SP4VL9fmo6NKlCUg4Vrc*9HoA4woRGVx6Jh*ggEykfM_/450_75EN.png"/></p> Quik questions to force the religious to think.tag:www.thinkatheist.com,2010-02-16:1982180:Topic:2236272010-02-16T05:30:40.645ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
<span style="font-weight: bold;">A popular method of debate especially when engaging christians is to use the sillyness in thier holybooks against them. I normally shy away from this unless I have some kind of understaning of what type of godbotherer I'm dealing with.<br></br>There is sometimes a time constraint and a long disscussion is not possable. My main goal when talking with the faithful ( or really delusional) is trying to engage thier minds, cause them to think and think outside of thier…</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold;">A popular method of debate especially when engaging christians is to use the sillyness in thier holybooks against them. I normally shy away from this unless I have some kind of understaning of what type of godbotherer I'm dealing with.<br/>There is sometimes a time constraint and a long disscussion is not possable. My main goal when talking with the faithful ( or really delusional) is trying to engage thier minds, cause them to think and think outside of thier holybooks. <br/><br/>My three best (favorite) nonscriptural questions / statements to make the the faithful think.<br/><br/> 1. How does heaven work ? If you are a good christian when you die you will go there.But what if a loved one wasn't ? How could you be happy in paradise when say ,your son' is burning in hell.<br/><br/>2.If god is perfect why Does he have so many human trates? Anger,jealousy,vengence , if I am to believe in a god I'd expect better in a perfect being<br/><br/>3. You tell me god wants to have a relationship with me. Why does the master of the universe ,the creator of all things have wants? A perfect being should be lacking for nothing.<br/> <br/>What are your best Ideas to make the religious think? I'm always looking for more ammunition.<br/></span> God — The Supernatural Poo-Flinging Primatetag:www.thinkatheist.com,2009-12-14:1982180:Topic:1821152009-12-14T17:04:16.397ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
God is a sadistic <a href="http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Corprophilia" target="_blank">corprophiliac</a>, in addition to being an anti-woman bigot who also orders people killed for breaking the Sabbath or for engaging in non-procreation sex outside of the confines of heterosexual marriage.<br />
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<b>Isaiah 3:16-17</b> talks about how God will punish his "chosen" people that he supposedly loves so much by targeting the women for abuse and humiliation saying, "the Lord will reveal…
God is a sadistic <a href="http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Corprophilia" target="_blank">corprophiliac</a>, in addition to being an anti-woman bigot who also orders people killed for breaking the Sabbath or for engaging in non-procreation sex outside of the confines of heterosexual marriage.<br />
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<b>Isaiah 3:16-17</b> talks about how God will punish his "chosen" people that he supposedly loves so much by targeting the women for abuse and humiliation saying, "the Lord will reveal their secret parts."<br />
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<b>Nahum 3:5-6</b> describes a direct threat from God to further punish the Israelites by humiliating the women, saying "I will lift up your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame." God further threatens to throw and smear human feces on the Israelites, saying, "I will pelt you with dung, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle."<br />
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What kind of Supreme Being threatens to pull up women's skirts to humiliate them and to punish the men — especially when the people deemed deserving of this punishment are God's "chosen people?" What does a God like this do to people he <i>doesn't</i> like?<br />
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"You pissed me off, now you're gonna pay! I'm going to pull down your pants/pull off your dress and smear you with shit?"<br />
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Now this is supposedly a divine being of intelligence superior to ours, right?<br />
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That reflect the sentiments of a psychotic schoolboy with the predisposition of a petty tyrant or a schoolyard bully who picks on all the girls during recess — not a Supreme Deity. Yet, millions of Christians worldwide take the Bible as the indisputable word of God, a being no one has yet proved to exist. In the name of this deity, and the Bible, innumerable acts of abuse have been meted out to select groups of people: women, gays, non-Christians, and "heretics."<br />
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In the past 50 years, an atheist schoolteacher was jailed under Tennessee's Butler Act for teaching Darwin's theory of evolution. Lawmakers, judges, and other people in high places shape and direct public policy based on their strong religious convictions; their belief in a God who behaves like an alpha primate at the local zoo — piss God off and he'll throw poo at you.<br />
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If anyone doubts that these sorts of humiliations and abuses are not meted out to women today, look at recent events last year when some American women rabbis of Reform Judaism made aliyah (religious pilgrimage) to Israel to <i>daven</i> (pray) at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. A gang of Chasidic Jewish boys and men pelted the women with human feces and yelled pejoratives and insults at them, because Orthodox Judaism maintains the tradition of women being "less than" men and therefore women are prohibited from praying at the Western Wall.<br />
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Those "nice" Torah-observant Yeshiva boys and men thought it was more important to assault and harass women (who are their fellow Jews) in an attempt to dominate and control women's behavior, rather than stay their asses inside the yeshiva to study Torah and work on performing their <i>mitzvah</i> (commandment) of <i>tikun olam</i> (repairing the world). God never makes a mistake...Everything is a part of his "GRAND" plantag:www.thinkatheist.com,2009-11-26:1982180:Topic:1696082009-11-26T22:18:48.182ZGerry Rivalhttp://www.thinkatheist.com/profile/GerryRival
A 4yr. old girl getting passed around as a sex toy by grown men. Beaten,tortured and thrown in a wooded area like a bag of trash. VERY GRAND Good job GOD!<br />
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If you can Convince me on how that was a "GRAND" plan and how it will benefit the world I will GLADLY denounce my atheism and become a believer again.
A 4yr. old girl getting passed around as a sex toy by grown men. Beaten,tortured and thrown in a wooded area like a bag of trash. VERY GRAND Good job GOD!<br />
<br />
If you can Convince me on how that was a "GRAND" plan and how it will benefit the world I will GLADLY denounce my atheism and become a believer again.